1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to vehicle mounted scrapers and in particular to a novel hitch mounted adapter allowing attachment of agricultural category one three point hitch implements.
2. Description of Prior Art
There are many types of motor vehicle attachment methods for scrapers. These attachments allow light trucks and the like to clear snow or perform grading work. Generally snow plows are mounted on the front of the vehicle and have hydraulic means for controlling the blade height and angle. These snow plows are expensive because they have unique mounting hardware for particular vehicle platforms. They also require attachment to the front frame of the vehicle which makes assembly and disassembly time consuming and difficult. Another disadvantage of this mounting configuration is that snow coming off the top of the blade can obstruct the driver's vision. This arrangement of the blade can also obstruct the vehicle headlights requiring the addition of lights on the top of the blade which increases the total cost.
Another means of adding a scraper blade to a vehicle is by attaching it to the rear of the vehicle. This eliminates some of the above noted problems of the front mounted blade. The vehicle headlights are not obstructed and snow coming off of the blade will not obstruct the driver's vision.
In order to provide background information so that the invention may be completely understood and appreciated in its proper context, reference is made to a number of prior art patents. U.S. Pat. No. 4,215,496 of Wehr shows a typical front mounted snow plow blade. These systems require complex brackets to attach to the front of the vehicle and also require an additional set of headlights because the blade obstructs the vehicle headlights. The brackets need to be designed for specific vehicle frame configurations requiring additional design work and product proliferation resulting in increased cost per unit.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,403,432 and 5,595,007 of Biance show a rear mounted scraper blade that adapts to the motor vehicle's trailer hitch receptacle. The disadvantage of this design is that it is designed around a particular scraper blade design. It does not use existing scraper blade standards that are produced in higher volume and therefore the total design offers less flexibility and more cost.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,369,590 of Miller shows a rear mounted blade assembly that is mounted directly to the rear frame of the vehicle. This has similar disadvantages to the front mount snow plow in that unique brackets would be required for different vehicle frame designs. It also has the same disadvantages of Biance in that the scraper blade is a unique design and therefore offers less flexibility and more cost.
The present invention is intended to overcome the above described shortcomings of conventional front mounted snow plows and rear mounted scrapers.